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M.-H. Chien, M. Brameshuber, B. Rossboth, G. Schütz, S. Schmid:
"Single-molecule analysis with silicon nitride drums";
Talk: 44th International Conference on Micro and Nanoengineering (MNE), Copenhagen (invited); 2018-09-24 - 2018-09-27; in: "44th International Conference on Micro and Nanoengineering (MNE)", (2018), 1 pages.

Abstract: Absorption microscopy is a powerful technique, enabling the
detection of single non-fluorescent molecules at room temperature. We show
that nanomechanical photothermal sensing surpasses the shot-noise-limited
sensitivity of state-of-the-art optical absorption techniques by more than two
orders of magnitude. Using stress-optimized silicon nitride resonators, we
achieve femtowatt-sensitivities at room temperature. Such a sensitivity results
in unprecedented signal-to-noise ratios for the imaging of single molecules,
presenting a competitive alternative to established imaging tools for singlemolecule
analysis.

single-molecule analysis, photothermal sensing, nanomechanical resonators, silicon nitride drums, photothermal imaging